Perspectives: Debra Silver, PhD

Event Date

Thu, Jun 6, 2019 @ 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Debra Silver, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the departments of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology at Duke University.

Dr. Silver's laboratory studies embryonic brain development, focusing on the process of neurogenesis. A major research direction of the lab is to understand mechanisms controlling brain size. Of special interest is how post-transcriptional regulation influences dynamic neural progenitor behavior and function. A second research focus is understanding how regulatory sequences, termed enhancers, contribute to unique features of the human brain by modulating neural progenitor proliferation. The lab employs a repertoire of genetic and cell biological tools including mouse genetics, ex vivo and in vitro live imaging, genomics, and proteomics. The long-term objective is to help broaden our fundamental understanding of how the brain is built, how stem cells behave, and the etiology of developmental diseases.